Tests and design of aluminum flexural members

This paper presents the experimental and numerical investigations of aluminum alloy flexural members. Aluminum members are being used increasingly in structural applications. The current American Aluminum Design Manual, Australian/New Zealand Standard and European Code for aluminum structures provide design rules for flexural members. The tests program was performed on ten square hollow sections subjected to pure bending. The beam specimens were extruded from heat-treated aluminum alloy of 6061-T6. Material properties and stress-stain curves for each specimen were obtained from tensile coupon tests. A non-linear finite element model was developed and verified against the pure bending tests. The finite element program ABAQUS was used in the analysis for the simulation of aluminum alloy members. Stress-strain relationships obtained from tensile coupon tests were incorporated in the finite element model. The verified finite element model was used for a parametric study of aluminum alloy beams of square hollow sections. A comparison of the bending strengths predicted by the finite element analysis and the design strengths calculated using the current American, Australian/New Zealand and European specifications for aluminum structures was presented. The bending strengths were also compared with the design strengths predicted by the direct strength method, which was developed for cold-formed carbon steel members. Design rules were proposed for aluminum alloy square hollow section beams based on the current direct strength method. Reliability analysis was performed to evaluate the reliability of the design rules. It is shown that the predictions given by the modified direct strength method are in good agreement with the numerical and test results.